Goulburn Valley Environment Group4.72 MB

LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 717 This submission describes a case study in which the decline of 39 threatened plant species in the eastern Northern Plains is recorded and reasons for their decline were investigated. Threatened Plants of the eastern Northern Plains, 2020 is a pamphlet that provides an overview of the project and describes the plants and places that were assessed (File attached). More than twenty years ago, as consultants for Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG), we undertook two major assessments of the conservation status of flora and fauna in the Eastern Northern Plains of Victoria, publishing two reports: Natural Values of the Public Lands Along the Broken, Boosey and Nine Mile Creeks of Northeast Victoria, 1996 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d3987f9db867f0001b1bb82/t/5d7d776f9a3d416fbae148f3/156850367649 5/Natural+Values.pdf Priorities for Nature Conservation Reservation and Management in the Eastern Northern Plains of Victoria, 1998 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d3987f9db867f0001b1bb82/t/5d7d7930a0accb2d2c9fcdac/156850411967 4/PRIORITIES+FOR+NATURE+CONSERVATION.pdf In the years since, many of the recommended changes to conservation status have been achieved, notably the creation of Barmah National Park, Lower Goulburn National Park, Warby-Ovens National Park and Broken-Boosey State Park. As well, many practical conservation actions such as fencing, woody weed control, pest control, planting and signage were undertaken by community groups, ParksVictoria and the Goulburn Broken Catchment Authority on these sites over that time. In 2017 GVEG received a Victorian Government Biodiversity On-ground Action Grant – Community and Volunteer (BOA2017CA373) to look at how the threatened flora populations identified in those 1990s studies had responded to the changed land tenure and changed management. The 2017-2019 study focussed on the fate of 157 threatened plant populations at the 22 best quality sites. Of these, • 54 populations had disappeared (32 of these populations were palatable species dependent on seasonal moisture – it is likely that some might re-appear in a wet year, but because of climate change their future is bleak) 1 of 10 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 717 • 36 populations were still present but had declined in numbers • 38 had maintained their numbers (these were mostly populations of just two species) • Only 28 populations had increased their numbers. In other words, 57% had disappeared or declined, 24% had stayed the same and only 18% had improved despite many of the sites changing from Crown land reserves grazed under licence to State Park and Nature Conservation Reserve management. Because we assessed multiple populations of species at different sites, we could compare the consequences of different management actions. Overall, improvements occurred where: • Stock grazing was removed. • Sites were fenced from stock and vehicles. Declines happened where: • Stock grazing continued, causing native species to be replaced with pasture species. • Vehicles had access and crushed vegetation. • Rubbish was dumped introducing weeds and providing harbour for pest animals. • Earthworks occurred - the construction of roads, drains, flood levees and mobile phone towers, the installation and maintenance of underground services, track-making and waste soil dumping all led to the permanent replacement of native vegetation with weeds. • Changes to hydrology occurred – swamp drainage, diversion of water from roads and paddocks, unseasonal irrigation flows in creeks and leakage from irrigation channels all encouraged weed invasion. • Weed invasion went unchecked and out-competed native plants. • Dense regeneration of eucalypts occurred after grazing was removed. The natural spacing of Grey Box and River Red Gums in grassy woodlands is about 10 per hectare (DELWP Benchmark for Vegetation Quality Assessment). When dense saplings (often thousands per hectare) are not thinned they eliminate ground layer vegetation with heavy leaf litter and fierce competition for moisture. • Kangaroo, deer, hare and rabbit grazing had high impacts at a few sites, but generally there were fewer kangaroos across the landscape. • Camping with horses occurred and plants were eaten or crushed and weeds and nutrients were introduced in their droppings. 2 of 10 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 717 Increasing the stresses to threatened plants over that time were also two broad-scale changes: • Climate change. During this period the Millenium Drought occurred and temperatures steadily increased (half of the years reached more than 1 degree above average and last year was more than two) and • The change from stock grazing to cropping on the plains with the consequent loss of trees and introduction of large volumes of chemicals (fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, rodenticides) to the broader landscape. It has also become common across the region for cropping farmers to remove roadside vegetation with herbicide, making the remnant vegetation surviving on public land even more rare. On the basis of our observations we recommended a number of actions that would be required to secure these populations of threatened plants: • Fencing of sites to prevent timber removal, damage from vehicles, rubbish dumping, stock grazing, horse camping • Control of woody and perennial weeds • Control of annual weeds and excessive eucalypt regeneration using fire • Noticeboards to explain the values of the sites. The managers of these public lands (ParksVictoria, Moira Shire, DELWP) expressed concern at our threatened plant findings and have shown a willingness to take actions to improve conservation outcomes. Unfortunately they were unable to achieve much. I have tried to summarise why I think this is the case. 1. A lack of allocated funding for conservation work – specifically the care that threatened species require. 2. A lack of dedicated trained staff to supervise or undertake conservation work. 3. Some short-term funding from other programs was directed towards improvements at these reserves, but little of what was required was achieved. 4. The nature of most conservation funding - short term, competitive, directed towards the community or overseen by individuals without detailed conservation knowledge - means it cannot be effective. Only long- term work by staff who can get to know the sites they look after, based on research and using adaptive management can achieve the improvements required. 5. Some reserve management categories meant that conservation needs were seen to conflict with recreational needs. For example, DELWP would not allow the fencing of a Streamside Reserve and a Wildlife Reserve to protect Nationally Endangered plant populations from off-road vehicles as it was seen to conflict with recreational user needs. 6. An inability to utilise fire for conservation purposes. Ecologically appropriate fire is an essential tool for restoration in grasslands and grassy woodlands as well as a basic management requirement. Parks Victoria 3 of 10 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 717 staff are not permitted to undertake the many small-scale cool burns required to reduce weeds and leaf litter and to promote the germination of native species. Such burns would have the added benefit of reducing volumes of fine fuel and producing more green matter over summer, which could greatly reduce the risk of wildfire on public land. 7. Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) are reluctant to allow others such as the CFA or indigenous fire crews to utilise fire on their land. 8. Because FFMV are set up to conduct burns for risk reduction purposes, their burns tend to be too large, too hot and involve the construction of breaks to the permanent detriment of native vegetation. They do not have the resources to conduct the many burns required each season in our many small reserves and tend to focus on locations where the perceived risks of wildfire are greatest, rather on where the conservation needs are greatest. Under the current landscape and climate stresses and without active protection and management, I believe there can be no doubt that the current losses of threatened plants will continue and accelerate. An urgent injection of funds and staff and changes to rules to allow ecological burning will be essential if we are to save our rapidly disappearing nature. 4 of 10 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 717 The eastern Northern Plains of Victoria were once entirely covered with grassy woodlands dominated by Grey Box River Red Gum forests and woodlands grew along the rivers and in the wetlands. There were also treeless grasslands in some areas. Before invasion, all these grassy types of vegetation were maintained by frequent burning at low intensity by the indigenous people. They mani- pulated the country with fire for many purposes such as to protect old trees and fire-sensitive vegetation from wildfires, to stimulate the growth of food and medicine plants, to provide forage for meat animals or to prevent the growth of too many trees and shrubs. Because the eastern Northern Plains are ideal for agriculture 99% of the original vegetation has now been cleared. Most of the remaining 1% is on public land such as conservation reserves, recreation reserves, rail reserves, stream frontages and roadsides. Not surprisingly, these grasslands and woodlands are amongst the most threatened ecosystems

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